Special Edition: London!!!

On June 9 my cousin Flora and I went to London for 10 days. Reviews for each of the shows we saw follow.

Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
A Cheek By Jowl Production
Barbican Centre, London
10 June 2008, Block A, B3
With Flo

Trojans in white, Greeks in black. Wonder who we're supposed to be cheering for? Set sometime in the middle of the Trojan war, Troilus, the brother of Hector and Paris, is in love with Cressida. Her guardian is all for the match, but then something happens on the Greek side and he basically ends up whoring her out to the Greeks to keep the peace. Troilus and Hector go to battle. Paris stays home and concentrates on keeping his hair in place. Hector gets killed. Cressida's guardian makes a speech. The end. What did we learn from this? I have no idea. It ended and everyone sat there like, 'what? That's it? What??'

The guy playing Hector was fantastic. Absolutely believable as the most honorable of soldiers. He had a reputation for showing mercy on the battlefield. His brothers warned him this would lead to his end, but he persisted, right up to letting Achilles go. Bad idea, as Achilles hadn't had a good killing in awhile and saw this mercy as mockery. Hector's death was chilling to watch. Partly because you knew it was coming, but when it happened, as he was sleeping unarmed and the Greeks surrounded him, turning the perceived mockery back on him by doing what he would never do was harrowing.

The production seemed to have trouble deciding if they were going to be straight-forward or symbolic, which led to some confusing moments, such as one scene when members of each army, hanging out in a Greek tent, start dancing together. How much interpretation were we supposed to put into the pairings? The Fool was portrayed as a drag queen. It was a move that worked really well and allowed him freer movement amongst the men and upped the misogynistic ante of their abusive treatment of him.

How well did the two sides know each other? That was confusing. In one scene, one of the Greeks takes Troilus to spy on Cressida, and he sees her going off with a soldier. As they watch, he and this guy are holding each other in a way that verges on passion. Granted, Troilus is upset, but to react by clinging to a Greek?

In conclusion: Yay, Hector.


Hairspray
Shaftesbury Theatre, London
June 11, 2008
CC12 with Flo

I normally have a rule that I won't see anything on vacation that I could see in New York, and I certainly had no desire to see Hairspray a 3rd time, but… Michael Ball is playing Edna!!! There was no way I was going to miss a chance to see him in person. He's a fantastic Edna. You actually see the character change from an agoraphobic housewife who has given up on her dreams into a strong, independent woman who puts herself out to the world in full confidence. It's not just, oh, this confident person is who she is and she's only pretending right now—it's a full on change, with little moments of indecision sneaking in later on in the show and glimpses of strength in the beginning to hint at what will come. He disappears into the role so completely, even his distinctive vibrato is absent. At times I thought he was channeling Ethel Merman for the big notes, but it worked. The duet Edna and husband Wilbur sing had the longest post-song kiss I'd ever seen. The audience was whooping in encouragement.

It's a decent enough production, but when it comes down to it, Michael is the only reason to see it. Yes, the girl playing Tracy is plenty perky, but so are they all. There were a few moments of 'where's the accent?' courtesy of the kids. Anytime they had to say more than 2 sentences in a row, the American accents would just…slip away. Very much enjoyed the girl playing Penny, but, again, could I tell her apart from the other Pennies? No.

But, if you don't have a Hairspray near you to see, and you happen upon this one, you certainly won't be disappointed because it is everything Hairspray should be. Check the website for Michael's performance schedule.



King Lear
June 14, 2008
The Globe Theater, London
E48, Lower Gallery with Flo

At the Globe, you can buy cheap tickets and stand, or you can pay a bit more and sit. Flo and I chose to sit because KING LEAR IS 10 HOURS LONG. Or so it would seem if I were standing. Seated, it's only 3 hours and some change. So many people said to us, 'you have to stand, it's the authentic way!' The entire theater is a reconstruction. Every piece of it is 'authentic', whether you sit or stand. What they really need is to have prostitutes milling about and the smell of manure wafting in from the river. Now *that* would be authentic.

This was my third King Lear in the past year or so. It was my first with a guy who I didn't know from Adam. After visiting the Globe, Flo and I decided to see a production there. I described Lear to her, and she picked it over Midsummer.

David Calder was King Lear. Maybe because I've seen it and studied it now, but I didn't have a lot of the problems I usually face, especially in terms of the 'disguises' in the production. It's always so touch-and-go with the non-Lear scenes, and this group managed to not bore us. Mr. Calder was a very good Lear. I wished the storm scene had gone a bit slower, but that was clearly a direction issue. The scene when he reunites with Cordelia and tells her he'll die if she wants him to brought spontaneous tears on. He was a king with a sense of humor, even as he was losing his daughters and then his mind, and it gave him a tenderness that made sympathizing with him easy. The one advantage that he had, in being unknown, is that when he had to rail against the winds, etc., no one in the audience was thinking, 'Ah, Gandalf voice!' as we all did when we saw the otherwise wonderful Ian McKellan. Shame on us, really.

A wonderful first King Lear for Flo and a great third for me.




De Profundis
National Theatre
June 16, 2008 6:00 PM with Flo and Sarah

Wearing a prison-issue shirt, seated in an orange plastic chair with a lone spot on him, Corin Redgrave read the letter Oscar Wilde wrote to his ex-lover Alfred, Lord "Bosie" Douglas, during his second year in jail, for which Bosie and his father were responsible. You never did hear such bitterness as he details his devotion to Bosie and Bosie's betrayal! He berates himself for being blind to Bosie's mistreatment and taking him back again and again until his weakness gave them a way to put him in jail. The title translates as "From the depths". This is a letter in which a man claws his way out of darkness. In the end he declares he's not going to let this ruin his life and resolves to take strength from it. Of course, in reality, the experience of hard labor ruined Wilde's health and he died a few years after his release. It was an incredibly moving performance. Sometimes I thought that Mr. Redgrave was over-doing the bile, but at other times I thought he captured the quiet, retrospective parts so well. He did a recording of the letter at Reading Gaol, where it was written. It is available for purchase. Wilde's grandchild was one of the consultants. I think Oscar would be glad about that. In his life, he never saw his children again after prison. His wife took them away and changed their names because of the scandal.



The Mousetrap
St. Martin's
June 16, 2008 8:00 PM
With Flo and Sarah

56 years and still going! Agatha Christie's play about a group people in a ski lodge during a storm. The phones are out and one of them is a murderer! Oh no!!

The acting is all around bad, but people keep coming back. Including me. My 3rd time over a 15 year span.

The most interesting aspect was hearing people talk about their theories at the interval.

Personally, I think that for the 60th anniversary, they should do a special All-Star Cast Production. Get some good actors in and let them ham it up—that's what the bad ones are doing anyway!

Oh, the murderer is





Sorry, promised I wouldn't tell. :)




Les Miserables
Queens Theatre
June 17, 2008, 7:30 PM
Stalls H3 with Flo

Drew Sarich, who I had hoped to see as Javert or Valjean in New York, was playing Valjean. I was delighted to finally get to see him. However, I soon realized that since the last 3 Valjeans I'd seen had been so marvelous, he had a lot to live up to. He didn't quite reach the level I'd have wanted, but was very good nonetheless.

Javert, though…why do I never see a good Javert in London? Or hardly anywhere. I think I've seen maybe 2 Javerts who were great actors as well as singers. For some reason, it's one or the other with Javert.

Cosette, who I used to think was useless, has gone through a character metamorphosis in recent years. Actresses have been drawing their inspiration from the fact that Cosette's father has kept her away from people for 13 years and not told her why. Naturally, she's a little annoyed. She's also smart enough to realize that falling in love with a boy at first sight is possibly foolish. See, now we have a purpose for Cosette. Suddenly, she becomes more interesting than Javert. How can this be?

One of my favorite things about Les Mis is the dynamic between the students. This group had less animosity than others, especially towards Grantaire, whose worries about the battle got him a hug from Enjolras rather than the customary telling off. Following Eponine's death, Grantaire was the one who comforted Marius, not Enjolras, as Grantaire, being somewhat of a romantic, was better suited to provided sympathy than Enjolras, who saw her as a fallen soldier.

Thenardier was great. Funny and evil. I didn't even get impatient during the throwaway numbers he and the Mrs. sing.

Except for Javert, this was great. I saw new things. I enjoyed it immensely. When it comes down to it, I love Les Mis, and I'm going to go on loving it no matter what. It's a great story, and I'm picky about how it is portrayed, but I love seeing how different people do it, what they bring to it. Viva la Revolution!

Cry-Baby the Musical!

Cry-Baby: The Musical
June 8, 2008 3:00 PM
U 118 with Flo

Fun, but largely forgettable musical based on the John Waters film, which I've also largely forgotten. The acting was good and it seemed that people were enjoying themselves. The ruffians actually looked rough, so when the boys in prison break into a tapdance, there was none of the West Side Story these finger-snapping boys are going to riot? Really?? that typically comes when stage gangs burst into song. Elizabeth Stanley, recently of the Company revival, resurfaces here as a 16 year old girl. Having just seen her in a very adult role, it took a few minutes to accept her as a teenager, but once I did I started wondering how I'd possibly thought she was an adult! The wonder of costume and makeup… All in all, Cry-Baby sends you off with a good feeling, and it's not a bad way to kill a Sunday afternoon.